This invention relates to social networking systems, and in particular to categorizing entities represented in social networking systems as malicious or non-malicious based on interactions of users with the entities.
Social networking systems allow users to establish connections with other users and interact with them. Social networking systems are often used by groups of users with similar interests to interact with each other and collaborate with each other. Users can upload content of interest to the group of users, exchange comments related to the content, organize events associated with the group, and interact using other ways facilitated by the social networking system including, wall posts, direct messages, online chat, and the like.
Groups of users often share interests in a particular type of activity, for example, particular type of music, particular type of religious activity, academic activity, and the like. However, some groups of users may be associated with malicious activities. These malicious activities include unethical, immoral, or illegal activities, or any kind of activity that can cause social harm. For example, a group can be involved in racist activities targeting a particular race or minority group, violent activities, or illegal activities like child pornography.
Social networking systems provide mechanisms to allow users to provide feedback that can be used to determine whether a group, user, or content is associated with malicious activities. For example, users can flag whether certain content is bad. However, the user feedback may not provide an accurate indication of the type of activities associated with an entity or group. User feedback is often influenced by the user's bias and personal preferences. For example, users may flag non-malicious activities as malicious due to their own biases. On the other hand, users may not provide feedback if they are too busy or hesitate to provide feedback. Furthermore, due to the large amount of content available in a social networking system, it is often difficult to ensure that all relevant users are presented with the content they are interested in. Therefore, users that could provide proper feedback may never see the content and therefore never get a chance to provide feedback. As a result, user feedback provides only an approximate and often inaccurate indication of whether an activity, content, or groups is associated with a malicious activity.